Cut off, let go and leave behind

In the series of “10 Japanese sayings, 10 life lessons”, I would like to share a beautiful selection of Japanese sayings that may change life perspectives.

The Japanese saying today:

断捨離

Cut off, let go and leave behind

“ Life is like a train with limited space and time. When you reach the last station, how many pieces of luggage can be taken with you? If life is finite, shouldn’t we make wiser choices?”

Ms. Yamashita told us a story of how she got entangled and then enlightened by the philosophy of “Cut off, let go and leave behind”.

She was born in Tokyo living with her parents and an elder sister. Her mom used to care a lot about money and physical things and stock up everything at home. This often became the center of arguments at home. To escape she chose to marry early to leave home. She recalled,

“ I just wanted to escape, but that is not letting go…”

Then she was bothered by her mother-in-law who loved to control the everyday happenings of everyone in the family. She was so stressed and suppressed that she suffered from hair loss, weight loss and most worrying, a depletion of white blood cells. She chose to divorce and escape again.

Not until something even worse happened, she started to review the philosophy of life. Her sister was diagnosed with cancer, which worsened due to the fact that her sister could not accept the daughter’s chosen gender identity. Finally both left. Her sister died and the daughter (her niece) committed suicide due to the pressure.

“People cannot accept each other because they cannot let go.”

If they had been able to let go of the prejudice, they would not need to cut off the relationship and leave behind the grief. “Let go” is not letting go of everything, but choosing to let go of unimportant things in life so that you don’t need to cut off important bonding and assets. At the age of 50, she has been enlightened.

After that, she decided to live with her mom again after her mom had been “cut off” forcefully by her for so many years. In order to understand the real meaning of “cut off, let go and leave behind”, one needs to experience the pain of doing so, and the joy that comes with it, so that one feels at ease in deciding which to cut off, let go and leave behind.

Dear readers, what are important to you? Are there anything that you can cut off, let go and leave behind?

Thank you for reading.

Your sharing will be the best motivation for me to go on.

Rex Lam K.M.

A ghostwriter who helps opinion leaders write Chinese stories in China, and helps himself with the indulgence in Japan.